Football team culture? The Daily isn't doing Michigan any favors.

I only skimmed the article but I think It's off the mark. Warde is definitely not the smoothest operator from a PR standpoint, but even if you were convinced those four particular incidents were connected in some vague thematic fashion, it's not exactly evidence of a win at all costs mentality. 

Also surprised that Howard slap wasn't included, though maybe it contradicts the author's desired narrative.

I think we can all admit that the readers and commenters of this blog are generally unable to be objective about articles like this. It's all opinion, and a lot of it is formed on incomplete context (on both sides).

If the main point of the article is "players & Athletics get away with misbehavior because of winning", I disagree, but it's because I think that the winning part is irrelevant. Athletics is always under extreme scrutiny, and observers will always think they're getting away with stuff that non-athletes don't, even if that's not true. If the main point is instead "the AD should be explaining its decisions in more detail so that observers can better evaluate whether decisions were appropriate or not", I'm OK with that critique. 

OP, I'm not sure what your objection is - is it simply that someone is attacking the AD instead of getting on board? Or do you think the AD handled the non-Mel incidents in such a way that it's ridiculous to question them?

Honestly, I'm probably glad to see articles like this now and then, even if it goes beyond what I would agree with, because it reminds me that we're not State.

Do they still have a great crossword?

First off the author does not specifically mention the word culture or take any direct shots at the football team specifically.  He references the entire athletic department focus on winning and includes two football team incidents (the Donovan antisemitic retweet and the Mazi Smith gun incident) along with the basketball team along with the hockey team and then closes with questioning why the Bo statue is still up today.   And while I dont necessarily draw the same conclusions that the author does I do think his points have some merit and worth discussion. 

One of the reasons the Michigan Daily has been and continues to be great is that it's NOT a shill for the University or its athletic department.  It tries to an independent news source (as much as they can) and I would hope that one element of the "Michigan Difference" is the ability to look at ourselves critically and objectively.

I dont agree with the author but I respect the balls it took to write this. 

I'm glad the Daily wrote this article because student newspapers shouldn't be afraid to hold powerful institutions responsible but the Pearson stuff was the only stuff that really makes me question what Warde was doing.  The Smith situation wasn't great and I don't love how they sort of threw their hands up as if it was nothing when there was clearly a bit more to the story than they let on but it's still not some massive cover-up.  But Warde wanting to renew Pearson after everything came out and seemingly trying to bury/ignore the report was a really bad sign.  

Warde is a useless wet blanket though tbh 

The more successful this team is the more people are going to try to find stories to bring them down. If you haven't noticed on the inner webs people love to hate on Michigan. Avoid posting links to these people.

Someone should spend some time - their time of course, not mine - and assess across all Power 5 universities, how many incidents, and of what type, have they been, and then provide that analysis. The Michigan student body at large may have high standards for conduct, but its unclear to me how/where those standards apply to the athletic department, and given the excessively financial nature of the AD and how it operates, its pretty reasonable to expect some things not to run to the highest of standards. But, the question is... how does it compare to elsewhere?

Is it about academics? Are we comparing ourselves to Stanford, NW, and Notre Dame? Haven't they all had issues too? 

I just don't know what standard the AD is being held to?... other than winning without overt cheating/legal issues. Maybe I'm old, but this feels a bit like politics now where if you're not 1000% in the pool and don't feel that everyone isn't doing enough, then you're part of the problem.

I don't think people enjoying Michigan's resurgence in football should feel guilty about it. But it is a very Michigan thing to expect it and of course, someone always has to play that role.

Pass. As a former journalist I have no love for the click bait media.

It’s not the Michigan Daily’s role to do the athletic department any “favors.”

Ditto for any other media outlet/team/entity.

This is RCMB catnip.

I don't really care either way to be honest. The reality, which you can bemoan, accept or appreciate, is that the football program is its own thing and as such is more an 'associated entity' as far as the university itself is concerned than a real part of it. The Athletic Department, and the football part of it in particular, isn't just a department like say the Linguistics Department, it's a big-time business in its own right.

And as such a business Michigan football competes in an industry with its own rules and requirements that are very different from academia. There's always going to be an uneasy relationship between an academic institution and what is now quickly and more or less openly becoming a professional sports business.

But there's a reason the university isn't running away from it, distancing itself, taking measures to end it. And that reason is that the university, beyond lofty mission statements etc., likes money as much as anyone else does. And Michigan football is a money-making machine. The university as such thus needs to ensure this machine runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible - or get out of that industry. If the university wants to have a nationally successful, elite level football team then this requires an approach in line with general industry expectations and standards, not the views of the Michigan Daily.

To put it bluntly, I don't see anything in Mazi Smith's conduct that would disqualify him from playing for Michigan football or justify harming Michigan football's prospects. Whether he is a model citizen or not, is completely irrelevant in that context.

I don't agree with all the takes but its a completely fair article. Warde has failed in a lot of ways when it comes to accountability and culture and when winning is the most the important time to point that out because it does tend to get buried.

I was a Warde defender in terms of how he has handled the big ten, contract negotioations, etc. but he failed in his most important job when it came to the pearson incident and the complete lack of willingness to address Bo's legacy.

The extent to which people on this site want any and all criticism of Michigan to simply not exist is kind of hysterical. This isn't about winning and losing. It's about right and wrong.

The university, the athletic department, the people they hire, none are beyond reproach. We've seen tons of examples of this in the past few years, from Schlissel and Martin Philbert to Dr. Anderson and Bo and Mel Pearson. Across the board. Over and over again. They've lost the privilege of assuming innocence and their best intentions.

The University of Michigan is more rotten than we thought, sorry to say, even though it's spent more than a century trying to project as a paragon of virtue. It fails. Just like any other institution. And it fails a lot. The Daily shouldn't be faulted for trying to stand up against that, even imperfectly.

Consider this: Is Leaders and Best is a statement of fact, or a constant and aspirational goal? I know my answer to that question has changed in the past few years.